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Computer Does Not Recognize My Usb Flash Drive--xp

The other day i tried to use a USB FLASH DRIVE. The first time i tried it i just dragged a test email to the flash drive and it copied it just fine.
Now i tried it again and when i go to my computer it shows up but if i try to drag something to it it say "please insert disk into drive". I have checked the properties and it shows the device is working properly.

The first thing I would want to know is does it work in other USB ports on this computer? In other words, if you have inserted it into the front USB ports, unplug it and put it in the back. Sometimes the front ports do not give as much power as the rear ones do.

The next step would be to try this thumb drive in a different computer. If it doesn't work in the second computer, then the problem is with the drive itself.

This is the 2nd time this is happened....anybody have any ideas why this kind of thing happens. FYI---I do not take the flash drive out without click on the icon and it says it is safwe to remove the device.

That's probably it. The only time I used the "safe to remove hardware" icon, it disabled my external drives. I had to use Administrative tools > services to start the process. I may have used Autoruns too. I never use it after that. I bet that's what happened to yours. I'll try to figure out exactly what I did to fix it. I'll post back with that info if you can't figure it out.

The next step would be to try this thumb drive in a different computer. If it doesn't work in the second computer, then the problem is with the drive itself.

I have tried it on 2 different computers. Neither one worked except it worked on the 1st fcomputer the first time.

Well, then that tells us that the issue is not with your computer or with XP, but rather with the drive itself. I would go to the manufacturer's website and see if help can be found. It might not be a bad idea to contact them directly. Drives can be bad right out of the package I suppose.